I am often asked whether or not to use the command 'stay' when training dogs. In my experience, there are different schools of thought on this topic. I believe that there is a difference between using the command and not using it, similar to the difference between driving a manual and automatic car Tune in to my podcast to discover the difference it can make in your dog's behavior.   If you are looking for a way to get your dog to behave at home, look no further. Click the link below to check out my training on Daily Life Skills - https://www.matadork9.com/dailylifeskills         00;00;01;08 - 00;00;32;01Michael J. AccettaWelcome. My name is Michael, etc.. I'm the founder of Matador Canine Brilliance and author of The Dog Training Chico's. You're listening to the Acknowledge Dogs Podcast To my professors in college had very different opinions on telling dogs stay or not to say the word stay. We even joked about making T-shirts about it where we would say, I believe in stay where I don't believe in stay. 00;00;32;15 - 00;00;50;21Michael J. AccettaSo which is the correct school of thought? Should we be telling our dogs stay after we tell them to do something right as they stay or should sit just by itself? Tell my dog what they're doing should be continued until I tell them to do something else. Well, I'll give you my quick answer. I prefer not to say the word stay. 00;00;51;11 - 00;01;07;10Michael J. AccettaThat may be so. I understand why people say stay and why people don't say stay. So I'm going to show you both sides of it today. We're going to discuss why it would be important to say the word stay. Maybe change to not saying the word stay or stay with saying a word stay. How many times can I say the word stay? 00;01;07;10 - 00;01;25;18Michael J. AccettaAt any given moment, right. So we're going to go over whether you should be saying stay to your dog or not. Number one, the first thing you have to understand that there is a difference between saying the word stay and not saying it. And I want you to think about that as the difference between a manual car and an automatic car. 00;01;26;06 - 00;01;40;20Michael J. AccettaWe're going to get more in-depth about this as we talk about stay. So stay tuned because although that might seem confusing, like, okay, yeah, I understand Emanuel and I are staying in automatic, but how the hell does that apply to dog training? And telling our dog a steak? Stay tuned. I'm going to go over it. First things first. 00;01;40;20 - 00;02;01;03Michael J. AccettaIf you're already saying the word stay, it would probably behoove you to continue using it. At least for a little while, unless you fully understand the concept of teaching your dog something new. If you don't fully understand that concept, trying to teach them something new at this point, by completely demolishing everything you've worked on is not going to be beneficial to you or your dog. 00;02;02;15 - 00;02;22;16Michael J. AccettaInstead, keep doing what you're doing and eventually change it. Maybe on the next behavior teaching. So if you're saying sit, stay, you're not going to just completely forego that because you're essentially starting all over with the word sit. I'll explain that in a minute. If we're now teaching our dog down, stay. Maybe we only teach them the word down instead of down. 00;02;22;16 - 00;02;46;14Michael J. AccettaStay. Understand? Right. So it's a little different. If I'm already using the word stay, I might as well continue using it. It's what my dog is accustomed to. It's what they're used to. And if I change it, they're going to get slightly confused. Now, the reason they get confused and this is one of the pitfalls and people say, well, you shouldn't be telling your dog stay is because of I say the word stay that becomes content agent on my dog staying. 00;02;47;01 - 00;03;04;26Michael J. AccettaIf I don't say the word stay, then they can do whatever they want. Okay. We break that d